Bellator 72's Travis Wiuff: 'I only care about one belt, and that belt is gold'

Travis Wiuff’s Bellator opening-round tournament fight didn’t end with a win over Chris Davis, but rather, in the arena’s parking lot, where he did a few wind sprints.

“Of course I was happy with finishing him as early as I did, but at the same time, I needed to get a workout,” Wiuff recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Now in the semifinals of the promotion’s “Summer Series” light-heavyweight tourney, he expects Tim Carpenter to provide more pushback, but he said the effort won’t matter anyway.

“I want to dominate everyone I fight in this tournament,” Wiuff said of the eight-man field, which earns the winner a title shot. “I didn’t sign up for this tournament to come out and put together three boring decision wins and take criticism every step of the way. I came here to finish my opponents, and I came here to finish them in dominant fashion.”

Wiuff (67-14 MMA, 3-0 BFC) meets Carpenter (9-1 MMA, 4-1 BFC) on Friday at Bellator 72, which takes place at USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla. The event’s main card airs live on MTV2 while preliminary-card fights stream on Spike.com.

Wiuff, a longtime and well-traveled veteran of the sport, did take a few boos when he smothered Davis against the cage and appeared to stall an otherwise promising fight. But he managed to pound out Davis late in the first round, and he notched another dominant performance. During his current 3-0 stint in Bellator, he won a decision over current champion Christian M’Pumbu in a 2011 non-title fight.

Short-notice tourney replacement Carpenter didn’t fare so well against the champ; he fell to his punches in the first round of their semifinal-round fight in season four’s tournament. But he’s since earned two finishes, including a second-round submission victory over Beau Tribolet. In that fight, he spent quite a bit of time on his back before locking in an armbar.

Wiuff could use that intel to his advantage, but he’s fought so many times – 82 to be exact – that he’s not at all concerned with what his opponent brings to the table.

“I haven’t watched much tape on Tim going into this fight,” he said. “Obviously he’s a tough fighter, or he wouldn’t be here in the Bellator semifinals with me.

“But I don’t really worry about what my opponent’s doing. I take care of myself and work on my strengths and weaknesses. I can’t control what my opponent’s going to do. Trying to predict what my opponent might do is just a waste of energy for me.”

Of Carpenter’s black-belt in jiu-jitsu, Wiuff said: “I only care about one belt, and the color of that belt is gold.”

The winner of Friday’s fight meets the winner of a semifinal bout between Attila Vegh and Emanuel Newton. After that, M’Pumbu awaits the eight-man tourney’s winner.

Wiuff has his eye on that prize.

“I know M’Pumbu is not looking forward to having to fight me again,” he said. “The great thing about fighting is that I can go out there and break somebody. I can make it so that person never wants to fight me again.

“I’m going to continue making statements with my actions in the cage until I can get Christian in the cage again and take what I have coming to me: the light-heavyweight world championship.”

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